After being swept and outscored 28-3 over three games against the Kansas City Royals, the Cincinnati Reds aim for a turnaround Monday night against the host Toronto Blue Jays. The Reds finished a 3-3 homestand with an 8-1 loss to the Royals in the series finale on Sunday. Cincinnati opens a seven-game road trip on Monday.
"We're trying every day to find ways to get better and to score runs more consistently," Reds manager David Bell said. "We do believe in our guys. We know we have to continue to find ways to adjust to the league, adjust to the opponent and in some cases learn ourselves as hitters.
There's no reason it can't happen now. There have been signs. But there have been stretches where it has been tough to score runs.
" The losses to Kansas City followed Cincinnati's three-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals. The Royals exposed Cincinnati's weaknesses.
"Defense would probably be No. 1," Reds catcher Luke Maile said. "If you play sound defense, you're always going to be in the fight, it seems like.
From an offensive standpoint, when we don't play good, we just chase out of the zone a lot. There's really nothing else to say other than that." He believes that the team can use the lessons it learned versus the Royals and make adjustments against Toronto.
"We got some pretty good feedback from a good team about where we stood in terms of executing what we need to do," Maile said. "We're going to have to take that information the Royals just gave us and do something about.